“I feel like a dentist,” Chris said.

“When I had one of my wisdom teeth out the young trainee dentist couldn’t get it out with normal pliers,” I began, “and she asked her dentistry teacher for bigger pliers – it was quite frightening for us both. She said I had a strong jaw bone.”

“Like Joan Sutherland,” quipped Chris.

Aside from being a fellow Australian, the late Joan Sutherland is my all-time favourite soprano opera singer (even if she did have a heavy jaw) so I felt a tad offended on her behalf). Then I wondered if my jaw is as heavy as Joan’s was…

“She’d probably have had a bit of cosmetic surgery if she had been born later – you know what it’s like nowadays,” Chris pondered while he was tugging away with the pliers.

We were standing close, Chris busy with the pliers whilst I was struggling with a gouging implement.

“We’re like surgeons,” I said.

“At the moment I feel like a wicked Nazi dentist collecting gold fillings,” answered Chris.

“I know, it is hard – isn’t it?” I chatted as I gouged and the tool slipped and brought blood from one of my fingers. “Now you know why I asked for your assistance.”

At last we finished one chair seat and then there was the other one to do. At length we were finished that one too and I took off the old material; now that the staples were out, I was about to reupholster the seat of the wooden chair using new material and a staple gun.

“Hey,” Chris had perked up, “as it’s nearly lunchtime do you think we could call this a staple diet?”

“Well, that would be a nail-biting experience,” I replied.

It’s always fun doing horrible jobs with Chris.